This is a bit of a story of my Datsun 1600 which I bought off my parents in 1999. After driving her around for a year I decided the rust that was showing through was just not good enough and decided to take her of the road for the big 'ground up rebuild'

I started by getting the whole car stripped, and plastic media blasted (or bead blasted) by DJ Auto Paint removal in Bayswater.This revealed all the rusted sections which needed repair.These sections were all cut out and replaced with newly fabricated sheet steel sections and welded in with a variety of MIG and TIG. (done by myself, my father and a friend of ours who is a panel beater)

The hard to reach sections in the plenum (where the hinge for the bonnet resides) where accessing the sheet metal to cut it out and repair is quite difficult, was just sand blasted to remove rust and then fibreglass was placed over the top. This kept the form of the complex shape.

Carefull eyes will see the car is mounted on a rotisserie (made by Axtrack) which allowed the car to be fully seam welded and reinforcing sections to be welded in where the front wheel arches are. The car was welded with a MIG using 0.9 and 1.2mm wire for the seam welding, and for rust repairs the MIG was brought out again (along with the OXY!) using 0.6mm wire.

RUST REPAIRS:

PREPARATION AND PAINTING:

After the rust repairs, the whole car was 'clean and stripped' using a drill mounted polishing disk. This removed all the residue from the bead blasting, and any rust/oxide formed while the car was sitting there. Plus a rust converter was used on not only on the rust repaired sections, but the seam welded sections. This was used to remove the oxide which forms when you weld. After this was done and left for a couple of days, the scale/converted iron-oxide must be removed using a sand blasting gun or wire brush (either on an angle grinder or the old fashioned elbow grease way!) After all impurities on the body have been removed, NO body filler is used! The whole of the car was painted with AMERON 2K Black primer and later Red oxide (because they stopped making the black!) This particular paint brand was recommended by my painter who says its a medium range automotive/industrial primer paint, Australian made and of good quality with excellent rust prevention properties. Not too expensive aswell!!

After the paint has been given time to cure (air dried on a nice couple of days!) the body filler (if necessary) can then be applied to sanded sections where required. If there are just small ripples, a spray putty can be used. I think from memory, the most amount of body filler was around 1mm in thickness, as the sheet metal sections made up were pretty good quality.Each time the body filler is sanded back and smoothed over, a coat of primer is used to seal it. This also allows you to see how the repaired sections looks in comparison to the other surrounding sections. If required a further layer of body filler can be used but over the previously painted section.I have been told that body filler prefers to stick chemically to paint than to raw steel. Plus the paint is used to seal the panel first before the body filler is applied.

All the doors where cleaned out internally and then painted with a product called Syntar 333 by AMERON coatings. This is a 2 pot epoxy based tar coating/sound deadener (looks creamy to start off with until you mix in the hardener and it turns black!). Depending on how you thin this stuff out depends on the thickness of the coating. On the doors a minimal amount was sprayed on (to keep the whole thing light!!!)The doors where then coated internally and externally with the same 2k white for finish! After this K&H Fish oil was used to coat the insides of the doors, boot and bonnet.

MORE PHOTOS WILL BE SHOWN of the Seam Welding when the car is Bare metal!!! (just need to scan them in)

---to be continued-----POST IN PROGESS!!-----

The photos shown below are of the car after it's first dose of 2k white.

(more pics to follow.. and more detail)

NOTE: there are heaps more pics of progress as the car is now roadworthy!

A photo of the two doors shows a yellow substance inside the chassis. This is Wurth rust preventative wax. It's really weird stuff which you use an air compressor to squirt it as a mist into the car and the chassis rails.
All chassis rails were liberally covered in the Wurth wax.

Holes have been hole sawed into the sills (you can see them in the last couple of photos) which allowed the nozzle of the Wurth wax to reach in and coat all the way up the sill. (NO MORE RUST!!!) Plus this allowed access to behind the sill panel when welding new sections back in.

(more explanation to follow etc.)

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Last edited by SR20Datsun on Thu Nov 10, 2005 4:11 pm, edited 4 times in total.

Looks great!!
Excellent choice in colour, i will be painting my 1600 the same colour some time this week (or maybe next).

Have you got anymore info on the guys who did your media blasting? Prices? Quality of job? Where in bayswater are the located? As i am there all week working on my 1600, wouldnt mind going to have a chat to them about getting another car blasted!

Sorry, I think I said they were in Bayswater, they are in Knoxfield (a suburb across...) just off burwood HWY. (CLOSE ENOUGH! )

D J Auto Paint Removal
68 Parkhurst Drv Knoxfield 3180 (03) 9720 0755

From memory (back ages ago!) in around 2001 they charged me around $400 to get the whole shell of the car (minus doors, boot bonnet and every nut and bolt in the car!) I ended up getting doors and boot and bonnet done at a later date.

The guy there did a really good job, and if you tell him to do certain stuff, he does it. Plus the plastic beads protect the steel to some extent and stop it from rusting dramatically. BUT you'll need to remove this 'coating' (so a clean and strip disc) before painting!

This is a shot of the interior showing the carpet.
I wasn't too impressed by the general fit of this carpet, but managed to get it to work in the end.
Also note the dash has been re-upholstered.
The clock to the left of the steering column is going to be replaced with a factory 1600 tacho (which I have photos coming!!)

It was supposed to be a moulded carpet, and it didn't really fit the contours of the car. My 1600 has an automatic transmission tunnel, and it is supposed to be a little larger than the manual transmission tunnel, but for some reason, this carpet was HUGE in that area! There was all this additional space either side of the raised section of the tunnel, as if their transmission tunnel was even wider than mine.

It wasn't that bad, but just involved alot of playing around to get it to sit right, and smooth (and glue) all the raised sections down!

The brand was from Knox Auto Carpets. (VIC)
I didn't end up getting the super plush, just the plush. It was covered in fluff! I had to vacuum clean it 3 times before I could fit it properly to the car because I didn't want all the fibres in the car!

If I had to I'd buy another one from there, but it was just more effort than I thought it would be! (just like most of this car stuff!!)

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